12 Bar Blues

The Basis of Blues

A 12 bar blues is a must-know for any aspiring jazz musician. It consists of 12 bars, each having a dominant scale that corresponds to it. A dominant scale is a regular major scale, except that the 7th note is lowered a half step. When beginning, you're going to want to stay around the chord tones of the scale, those being the 1st, 3rd, 5th and lowered 7th note of the scale. These are sometimes called "safe notes". You could also lower the 3rd of the scale a half step, creating a minor 3. Be sure to resolve to the major three after, for a hip sound. There are lots of other notes that you can add, to increase tension, like flat 9 and flat 5, but always be sure to keep your solo moving forward and to resolve your tension notes. A typical 12 bar blues pattern will look something like this. Remember, every time a number is separated by a comma, that means it lasts for four beats, or one whole bar.

1,4,1,1,4,4,1,1,5,4,1,1

If we are going to play a B flat blues, then this is what the chord structure would look like: